Across The Waistland
by Compootor
Summary: Thor and Rick are no different from the average Vault-Dweller teens, but when their friend Karen leaves the vault mysteriously, they decide to go out searching for her. Knowing how foolish the venture is doesn't stop them, especially not Thor.
1. The Vault

Chapter 1: The Vault

War. War never changes. Oh sure, the weapons change, the reasons for it are rarely the same.. But War will always be War. People die for their countries and make other people die for their's. This happens over and over and over until one side runs out of people. At least that's what I've read in the books we managed to save before the War.

My name is Thor. I Live in Vault 94. What's Vault 94 you ask? Well, A Vault is a type of subterranean installation designed by Vault-Tec. Officially, they were designed for the sole purpose of sheltering up to one thousand dwellers from a nuclear holocaust. It's like a little town undear the earth. It has citizens, Us the Vault Dwellers, It has a Police Force, or more like a small squad of Security guards and it has a mayor, also known as The Overseer. The Vault was sealed when the bombs dropped. Nobody comes in, nobody goes out. It's been like that for as long as I can remember. I was born in Vault 94. And I'll die here too. Or at least that's what I thought. It's what I was told.

A Few months ago, life in the vault was what it had always been. My 17th birthday rolled around and my mother and I were having breakfast in our Vault-Chamber when my best friend Rick walked in. Rick is a tall guy, his hair is always messy, he doesn't bathe very often and when he walks in, you notice a pungent odour in the room that wasn't there before. So why do I like him? I don't know, but for some reason, Rick was always the only guy I was able to really connect with. The others kids always ignored me, called me ugly or threatened to beat me up. I only have two real Friends: Rick and Karen. Karen is the Overseers daughter and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't always had a huge crush on her. Don't laugh at me, it's not polite to laugh.

''Yo, Thor'' Rick said, smiling at me as the Automatic doors slid open, allowing him entrance into our humble abode.

''Hey, Rick'' I replied as I scooped some SugarBombs into my mouth from the bowl on the table.

''Morning Mrs. Erikson'' Rick smiled at my mom.

''Good morning, Richard'' Mom said into her eggs.

''You have anything planned for your b-day?'' Rick turned his attention to me.

''No, I figured I'd just.. You know.. Sleep..Sit around here..Read.. What we normally do'' I replied.

It's true, life in the Vault wasn't exciting, but it was better than the life you'd have on the outside. The outside had been bombed in the war. What used to be Washington D.C was now nothing but a ruined Wasteland, crawling with Mutant monsters and evil people that would rob you blind, kill you and spit on your corpse at the first chance they got. Well, The mutant monsters would probably do just kill you. That's why we were down here. The Vault was Safe. Safe from the Radiation, The Mutations and the Legions of unsavory Characters.

''Oh, No you ain't gonna do none of that! Not on your birthday! You're gonna do something Special today!'' Rick exclaimed. I shrugged.

''Like what?'' I asked him.

''Like throw a huge party with me and Karen!'' Was his answer.

I'm not sure If I mentioned this, but life in the Vault was **Boring. **Parties were something that Never happened. Not Ever. The Overseer thought of it as a needless waste of food and energy.

''A **Party?**'' I asked.

''A Party!'' Rick confirmed, smiling.

I didn't waste any time in getting out the door. I fetched my BB Gun and My Baseball cap, things that I Always carried with me. The Cap was a gift from my dad, and the BB gun was just something that I kept around to shoot the walls. It was more fun than staring at them. Rick and I headed through the halls of Vault 94. The Chrome and Steel Plates on the walls were bolted together with faults here and there, really showing off the age of the building. It was a miracle that this broken-down building could keep out the radiation on the surface. We walked through the residential area, past Rick's Vault-Chamber and Past Karen's. We made several turns, walking quickly through twisted metal corridors, passing at least 16 other Vault-dwellers on the way. We walked down the stairs heading for the Reactor Room. Other people were getting to be a rare sight by now and that was how we liked it. The Vault was somewhat crowded, but nobody ever came down here, so the Reactor room had become what I guess you could call our hideout. Karen was there waiting for us.

''Finally you two show up!'' She exclaimed. I blushed softly.

''Sorry'' I excused both of us. Karen smiled.

''Happy birthday, Thor'' She hugged me.

Karen and I had been friends for a really long time and I had had a crush on her since the day we met. She is the sweetest, most wonderful girl in the whole vault. Not to mention the most beautiful. Her eyes are the deepest shade of brown you've ever seen and her hair is dark blond. Her smile summons my own every time I see it and her laughter is the sweetest music to my ears. It's always been like that. But enough of my ranting.

Karen and Rick presented me with their presents. Rick had scraped together what he could and had gotten me a couple cases of BB's for my gun. These were hard to find in the Vault, so I knew he'd gone through a lot to find them.

''Thanks Rick'' I smiled, sticking the BB's in the Pocket of my Vault 94 Jumpsuit.

''You're welcome, dude. Enjoy 'em while they last'' Rick replied.

Now it was Karen's turn. She dug around in her pockets, but she didn't find whatever she was looking for.

''Oh, no! I forgot your gift in Dad's office!'' She whined.

''Oh, Karen, That's alright, you didn't have to get me a gift anyway'' I said.

''No! I'm getting you a gift if it's the last thing I do!'' She replied.

''But-'' I began, but she cut me off.

''No Butts!'' She said. ''I'll be right back!''

And then she ran off. Rick and I waited around for her to come back for about ten minutes before we started to really get restless.

''Man, what's keeping Karen?'' Rick finally asked.

''I don't know, but.. She'll be back soon, she said she'd be back soon'' I said.

''Maybe we should just go and loo-'' Rick began, but was cut off by a loud buzzing alarm.

The Alarm Buzzed loudly Four or Five times before we heard a deafeningly loud metallic screech, followed by a roar of rusty metal scraping against even rustier metal. A second of Silence and then the roar sounded again, being followed by another loud metal screech. Then, everything went silent. We heard commotion upstairs and people asking what had happened. Rick and I didn't know what to do, so we decided to go see if Karen was alright. We had no idea what had happened. We headed out of the Reactor room, up the stairs, through the corridors and over to the Overseers office. We saw the Overseer in the hallway outside his office. He was frantically running around, trying to find something.

''What are you looking for sir?'' Rick asked him.

''What am I Looking for?'' The Overseer barked back at him. ''My Daughter!''

''What about Karen?'' I asked.

The Overseer didn't seem to mind me for a minute, while he ran around the hallways. We followed him, trying to keep up.

''Mister Overseer, Please, you've got to tell us what happened to Karen!'' I yelped at him.

''I can't find her!'' The Overseer whimpered.

''We gathered that, but do you know **Why **you can't find her?'' Rick asked. The Overseer shook his head, obviously fearing the worst.

''What was that sound we heard?'' Rick asked.

''That was Nothing! Don't think about that!'' The Overseer barked back, as if he was hiding something from us.

Rick and I decided to go search for Karen elsewere. We knew she had been going to the Overseer's office so we decided to check there, just in case the Overseer hadn't thought she'd be there. Once the Doors opened up, we realised she wasn't inside se we'd have to search the rest of the vault, but what we did see took our minds off that small setback: Right in front of the Overseer's desk where the floor used to be was a staircase leading downward. We stared at it in stunned silence for a moment before coming to the conclusion that Karen must have gone down there.

''Thor, What.. What is this?'' Rick asked me.

''I have no idea..'' I replied.

''You're supposed to be the expert on the Vault! You spend so much time reading about it, one would think you'd know what a big staircase in the middle of the Overseer's office was for!'' He exclaimed.

''Well, I don't!'' I whimpered, inching closer.

''You suppose Karen went down there?'' He asked.

''I can't imagine she'd be anywhere else..'' He took a step down.

''What are you doing?'' Rick asked.

''Looking for Karen'' I whispered, afraid of going down the staircase. I took another few steps.

''Are you crazy? You don't know what could be down there! Radroaches maybe! Or Something worse!''

Radroaches are basically Giant Cockroaches, mutated by the radiation. They infest the lower levels of the Vault and given the darkness of the area below the staircase, it was almost certain that some would be hiding down there as well.

''Just shut up and come along!'' I growled at Rick, who grumbled something I didn't catch and followed me down the stairs. The Darkness below the staircase was overwhelming. I couldn't see a foot in front of my face. I turned on the flashlight on my Pip-boy and sure enough, Radroaches scattered in the distance.

Oh, did I forget to mention? The RobCoPip-Boy is an electronic device manufactured by RobCo Industries, using ultra-modern super-deluxe resolution graphics, It has the capability to store large amounts of information and transfer data to and from Holodisks and from data tubes. It is mounted on one's wrist like a watch. It is basically a small computer that you wear on your arm. The 'PIP' in Pip-boy stands for 'Personal Information Processor'. All Vault Dwellers got their very own Pip-boy at around age Ten and Rick and I were no exceptions. We never took out Pip-boy's off. We couldn't have even if we wanted to. The Pip-boy uses a Biolock that means it can only be removed by a skilled Technician. If one of those isn't available, a Bonesaw is also a viable option.

The light from my Flashlight revealed the dark corridor, much like the rest of them, but it looked like this corridor hadn't been used in years. It was dusty and the walls had rusted into discoloration. At the End of the Hallway was a large room that I had never seen before. There was a control console on the left of the room and in the middle, on the wall opposite from me was a giant metal door. It looked like a Gear from a machine and the number '94' was painted in Big yellow font on the front of it.

''What in the name of god is that?'' Rick asked, pointing at the door.

''It's.. A Door'' I replied.

''Leading where?'' Rick whined.

''Rick..'' I began. ''This door.. This is The Vault Door. This is the Exit.. What lies behind this door.. Is the Surface..'' I said to my friend.

''The Surface!'' Rick exclaimed.

I nodded and walked to the console by the door. There was a big lever and some buttons on it. From the tags by the buttons I deduced what I needed to do to open the door.

''Rick.. The sound we heard.. That was this door opening and closing again'' I said to Rick.

''How do you know?'' Rick was desperately trying to persuade me not to even suggest what I was thinking about doing.

''Rick.. We hear the loud noise and suddenly, Karen's gone? She left the vault! Rick, We have to follow her! It's not safe in the Wasteland!'' I ignored his question.

''No, Thor! She's probably already dead!'' Rick whimpered.

I wasn't about to listen to that sort of talk. I wouldn't. I couldn't.

''No! Dont' say that!'' I whimpered.

''Listen, Thor.. If Karen's out in the Wasteland.. She must be dead..'' Rick said it again.

''NO! She's NOT DEAD!'' I yelled.

Rick seemed to see that I wasn't about to be persuaded and so he accepted what we were about to do.

''Alright.. Thor.. But if.. If this gets us killed..'' He began, but he couldn't finish the sentence. There was nothing else to say. He and I both knew we were going out there to look for Karen. There was no question about it.

I fiddled with the control console for a moment before putting my hand on the lever.

''Here goes..'' He whimpered before pulling the lever down. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, we heard a click behind the door, followed by the same, deafening, metallic screech we heard before. Rick and I covered our ears, gasping at the loud noise. The Roar followed shortly after and the Giant metal Gear rolled to the right. Once the dust cleared, we could see a dark cavern and in the distance, a crude wooden door. Cracks of sunlight seeped through cracks in the old wooden door in the back of the cavern and Rick and I could do nothing but stare at it for a moment.

''Let's get going'' I finally said. Rick hesitated, but nodded and followed me. I put my hand on the door. I could feel a breeze from outside. For the first time in my life, I was feeling actual wind. Fresh air. I took a deep breath and hoped it wouldn't kill me. I opened the door and stepped outside into the blinding sunlight with my friend following quickly behind me.


	2. The Waistland

Chapter 2: The Wasteland

Light. So much light. Light was all I could see. A Blanket of white covered my vision. I could still feel a breeze on my skin and I felt the presence of Rick by my side. Once my eyes had adjusted to the bright sunlight, I looked around me.

The Wasteland was just as they said. A Harsh, empty, deserted.. Well.. Wasteland. I could smell something foul in the air and the soil under my feet felt weak. We were standing on a small hill. In the distance I saw mountains and around us, cliffs sheltered the entrance to the Vault. Those cliffs had probably been what had hidden the vault entrence so well. Far in the distance by the mountains, I could see the outlines of some ruins. I Looked at Rick.

''It's... Not as bad as you expected is it?'' I asked.

''It's **Exactly **What I expected!'' He exclaimed back, obviously scared out of his mind.

''Rick.. I know.. I know you're scared.. But I.. We.. We have to find Karen'' I whimpered. I knew how Rick felt, and getting right to the point seemed like the best way to find out if he'd come along for the rest of the trip or not.

I wasn't sure if I could even call it that – A Trip. We didn't even know where we were going. We were pretty sure Karen had left the Vault and we needed to find her, but the Wasteland was vast, and with no real means of knowing where she went, we were on our own. It could take months before we'd find her.. And by then chances are she'd be dead.

''I.. Know, Thor. I know we do'' Was all Rick said. He was obviously still debating with himself whether or not he should come along, but there wasn't much time left to decide. I could hear the sounds of some of the other vault dwellers calling out to us, much closer than before.

''Come on, Rick!'' I exclaimed and grabbed his arm, pulling him down the small trail on the hill. I ran through the little canyon and into the open wasteland. We couldn't see the wooden door anymore. It looked like Rick had made his choice.

''Where do we go?'' He asked. I smiled.

''Those ruins seem like our best bet'' I guessed, pointing at the ruins in the distance. Rick sighed and looked over at the ruins before looking back at me.

''Alright.. Let's go'' He whispered.

We didn't say much on the way. We didn't see anything either. The Wasteland stretched on for miles with nothing alive in sight. The ruins were a good half-hour walk away. I had never had reason – Nor the room to walk such a long way. Both Rick and I were exhausted by the time we got to the edge of the Ruins. Now we could see that the ruins we had stumbled upon were of a small town. It didn't take long to find it's name. On a large, corroded green sign by the road leading into town we could read the name 'Mitchellville'.

''You suppose anyone lives here?'' I asked.

''**Lives here?**'' Rick replied. ''I don't think anyone's **Lived **here since the war!''.

''But.. There must be.. Survivors.. right?'' I asked.

''I don't think anyone could survive a war like the one we had.. Or the Nuclear winter that followed'' Rick sighed.

He was right. The chances of someone surviving something like that were microscopic. It frightened me. It got me thinking about radiation and how much of it we could be exposed to before getting terminal cancer or something like that. It also made me think about how little hope we had of finding Karen. It made me depressed and it showed. Looking around the town revealed so much destruction, I had never seen anything like it. Buildings were completely obliterated, the walls torn to pieces, entire neighborhoods blown apart and house upon house blasted to kingdom come.

We stopped in front of a huge square building that was largely intact. We weren't sure what it had been used for judging by the sign on the wall, but we guessed it must have been some sort of Religeous institute. The sign read: ''Wal-Mart''. We stepped up to the clear glass doors and stood there for a minute, half expecting them to open up on their own, much like the doors back home in the Vault. After a solid moment of silence, we realised the doors probably wouldn't work like that out here in the wasteland. Upon further inspection it appeared the doors had been automatic at one point, but they had long since stopped working. Rick and I had to work at getting them open by brute force. Once we got the door open, we instantly regretted it. We heard loud noises. Bangs and Booms. We had no idea what was going on.

''What's happening?'' Rick whimpered.

''I don't know!'' I exclaimed, looking around.

The giant hall we found ourselves in was full of shelves, stocked with all sorts of things. We didn't know what half of those were, we hadn't ever seen anything we could compare them to, but I assumed they were offerings. Presumably to the God depicted on banners and posters around the hall. There were images of a Large, yellow smiley face. I assumed this was a god of some sort. Judging by the shape and color, I guessed that it was the God of The Sun or something like that. Right about now I wish we had been tought more about the Pre-war world back in the Vault. I guess nobody thought we'd ever need to know that much about this place. We were still hearing bangs and booms. In the distance we heard cursing and saw bright flashes of light. Gunfire.

''Oh Crap!'' Rick exclaimed and dove behind a shelf. I did the same when a bullet whizzed right by my ear.

''See? I Told you there were people here!'' I exclaimed.

''You're going to spend your last moments saying 'I Told you so'?'' Rick complained.

''N- No'' I whimpered, knowing full-well the seriousness of what was going on here.

''Then think of something more fitting to say!'' Rick whimpered.

''We had a very short run?'' I Shrugged, but realised I wasn't taking this seriously again.

Bullets whizzed all over the place. We heard yelling. We looked over the shelves and were quite startled by what we saw. A Teenage girl, about our age, sprinting straight for us. At first, I thought it was Karen. This girl looked like her. She had long, flowing, dark blonde hair, and she had an attractive figure. In the blurr of motion, they looked very much alike, only this girl was wearing something dark and heavy. Karen always wore nice things. Things that made me smile. On top of her Vault 94 Jumpsuit, of course.

''Get your heads down if you don't want them blown off!'' The girl exclaimed, jumping behind the shelves with us. We backed away from her, terrified.

I could clearly see now that this girl was **Not **Karen. Her eyes were deep blue like mine and not Dark brown like Karen's. Her nose was thinner and her skin was pale. She looked like she ate very little compared to us. She was wearing some roughly stitched leather clothing with shoulder pads. In her hand was a 10mm Sub-machine gun. Now is perhaps the time to mention that I always had an active interest in firearms. Firearms and science. Those were the two things I had researched the most about the time before the war.

''Who are you?'' Rick whimpered.

''My name is Raquel'' The Girl introduced herself as bullets flew by.

She rose above the shelves and sent a hail of bullets in the direction of whoever had been shooting at us before coming back down to reload her weapon and talk to me and Rick.

''Who's shooting at us?'' Rick asked in the same high-pitched voice as before. The Girl now known to us only as Raquel sighed.

''Raiders'' She answered cryptically and unleashed more bullets at our unknown enemy.

''Are we going to die?'' Rick asked. Again with the voice.

''Not if I can help it!'' Raquel stated confidently. She sneaked past us slowly hiding behind the shelves. ''C'mon if you have any interest in not dying a horribly violent death today'' She whispered.

Rick and I looked at each other confused, but we followed her. We sneaked over to the other side of the room, hurrying from cover to cover until we got to a door labeled ''Security Offices''.

''This seems like as good a place as any to hide until those Raiders are gone..'' Raquel whispered and sneaked with us through the door.

The room was sort of dark, but the sunlight coming in through some small windows on the wall across from us made it so that we could see where we were going. In front of us, I could see what looked like a break room with doors on the left wall leading into some deserted offices. In the corner however was where I saw the most interesting thing I had seen in a while: A ProtectoPod.

In case you're wondering, a ProtectoPod is a steel Pod with a glass door that contains a Robot. But not just any kind of Robot: A RobCo Protectron. As their name suggests, the Protectron series of robot was devised primarily for protection and security operations, though their secondary programming is very modular and they can do many things from being greeters, ticket collectors and bartenders. From the looks of it, This particular Pod seemed to contain a working unit. I was amazed at how little damage it had sustained over the years it must have been standing in that pod. Beside the pod was a terminal and when I saw it, I got an idea.

''Hey..'' I began, looking at Raquel. ''If.. If I can get that Robot up and running, he would probably chase away the Raiders for us..'' I suggested. Raquel looked at the Robot.

''Are you sure that hunk of metal is up to it?'' She asked.

''That's what those guys were made for! Protecting! I'm sure he'll be able to chase away some bandits!'' I exclaimed.

Apparently my assumption that the Raiders were just a bunch of bandits was correct as Raquel didn't object any further. I took that as my que to get to work. I stepped up to the Terminal. Outside, I could hear the people who had been shooting at us begin to search for our corpses, assuming they had killed us.

The Terminal was locked with a primative Password system. It didn't take long to crack the code and figure out the Admin password – Independence. Once I entered the password, I got a list of three commands: Activate Protectron Unit XK-76, Deactivate Protectron Unit XK-76 and Open ProtectoPod. It didn't seem like there was much choice involved here, so I unlocked the Pod and Activated the Robot.

Instantly, The glass door on the Pod slid open and the Robot inside beeped to life. His sensor module lit up and he slowly and clumsily stepped out of the pod, his old gears clattering together inside the steel chassis. He took a few steps forward before taking a good look around.

''Good Day'' The Robot said in an emotionless, digital voice. ''I am a RobCo Protectron. Model Number: Sec-GNDN. Serial Code: XK-76. My last internal Checkup was on October 22, 2077. The Current Date is November 13, 2277. The System Checkup is aproximately 200 years and 23 days overdue''.

The Robot's boot-up greeting baffled me. 200 years. It had been 200 years since someone last used this Robot. Something struck me about the date. October 22, 2077. The Great War had begun on October 23, 2077. To think, the world had been so normal, and then a day later, everything was gone. There were no humans left to perform the Systems check.. And this protectron had been sitting here idle for all this time.

''Initiating Patrol route'' The Robot stated and slowly trudged out the door.

We waited in agonizing angst as we heard the Robot trudge past the Raiders and one of them made the mistake of shooting at it.

''Unauthorized use of Fireams detected'' The Robot's blank voice stated without emotion. ''Target has taken hostile action against Protectron Unit. Unit is authorized to use Deadly force'' He continued and then we heard nothing but silence for a second or two. Then, a loud ''**Pew! Pew!**'' As the Robot discharged the Plasma Pistols that were built into it's arm.

''This is an authorized use of deadly force. Please direct all complaints to your local law enforcement office'' The Robot Said politely to the Raiders he was attacking.

The Raiders began to shoot back, but it was too late. The Robot had already gotten in a few good hits on each of them and they stood little chance now. After a moment of Gunfire and Laser Discharges, the battle ceased. We dared to come out of hiding after another minute of waiting.

''You supposed they're dead now then?'' Rick asked.

''They must be'' I replied. Raquel stood up.

''Well, then come on..'' She whispered and headed out the door without waiting for me or Rick. We just looked at each other and hurried to keep up.

Sure enough, in the middle of the large room we saw earlier, we came upon the corpses of two men. They looked to be in their late 20's. They were wearing armor that looked a lot like Raquel's and in their hands they each clutched a 9mm Pistol.

''Well, Look at that. How convenient'' Raquel smiled, pointing at the guns in their hands. ''Two of them. Just enough for you two to arm yourselves'' She smiled.

''Arm ourselves?'' Rick asked, but he decided not to ask any more, as he knew it would be a good idea to at least be armed out here, seeing as this was our first day and we'd already come across two people who wanted to kill us. I picked up one of the Pistols and Rick the other. The Raiders were carrying 16 clips of ammo, each containing 6 rounds. We gathered them up and decided to let Raquel carry them, seeing as she was the only one with a backpack.

''Well then Gentlemen! I believe this is where we part ways!'' Raquel announced and began to walk off.

''Wait!'' Rick exclaimed. Raquel looked back at us and raised an eyebrow.

''We.. We need your help'' Rick whispered.

''My help?'' Raquel looked confused.

After explaining everything to Raquel, she smiled at us understandingly.

''Vault-dwellers, eh? I should have known'' She whispered.

''Will you help us find Karen?'' I asked. Raquel seemed to think about it for a moment.

''I'm going to a town called Greyditch'' She began. ''Since you don't know where to start looking, you might as well come along'' She proposed.

Rick and I looked at each other happily. We had found a friend. Someone who knew what she was doing out here in the Wasteland, And We had our heading: Greyditch.


End file.
